Today
IBM announced the enhancement of compressing not only block data on the V7000
but also now it includes the file data on the V7000 Unified.The V7000 was first set up with compression back
in the summer with a big announcement surrounding “Smarter Storage”.This optimization was the same code and
engine that was purchased from a company named Storwize a few years ago.

IBM
initially kept the compression appliance that Storwize was first known for in
the market.Using LZ compression with a
RACE (Random Access Compression Engine) providing an optimized real-time compression
without performance degradation. Thus slowing down data growth and reducing the
amount of storage to be managed, powered and cooled.

The
compression does not require the compression or decompression of entire files
to access the data block. The engine will compress and decompress the relevant
data blocks “on the fly”. As data is
written the RACE engine compresses the data into a smaller chunk and its 100%
transparent for systems, storage and applications.

The V7000 Unified can now deliver a larger compressed
platform than any other mid-range platform.With compression percentages around 75%, a system that was maxed out at
2.8 PB (960 drives x 3TB each) can now see the system handle up to 5 PB of
storage.

Each V7000 Unified with code base 6.4 has the option of
turning on a 45 day trial of the compression software.After setting the license to “45” then you
can add new compressed volumes on the system.You can also compress data on virtualized storage arrays.

Compression has been part of NAS for a very long time.We have seen compression of files from jpeg
to office documents.But the best part
is the end user will never have to worry about which files needed to zipped or
compressed. Everything that comes through the V700 Unified can be compressed in
line before it writes the data to disks.

A couple of other improvements that IBM announced were the
addition of a integrated LDAP server to V7000 Unified.This now allows customers to use both local authentication
and external authentication servers to allow access to data. Another feature was the ability to upgrade a
V7000 to a V7000 Unified in the field.If you currently own a V7000 but need to add file access to the system,
IBM will sell you the two file modules and corresponding software to upgrade
you system. Now mind you there is a list of requirements that will need to be
met so check with your local storage engineer for more information. And finally
we now have support for a 4 way cluster on V7000 unified.This allows for more disks to be provisioned
and can compete with some of the other mid-range storage platforms in the
market.

This all together makes a nice round of improvements that
will make life easier for IBM customers. As the V7000 platform matures it looks like IBM
is putting their money where their mouth is and making storage smarter and more
efficient.More to come on this platform
as I suspect we will see bigger things down the road.

Last week at the IBM Technical Conference I was able to
spend some time with a couple of friends discussing technology.It is always interesting to hear their take
on where the storage market is going and what lays ahead in the future. As my Netapp pal and I were chatting about the
messaging around unified architecture, we both noted that unified to one
perceptive is disjointed to another.

IBM and Netapp have been using the term unified for its NAS/SAN device for about 5 years now.The
idea is to share a common code base on the same hardware to increase
functionality and usability of that storage. Other vendors have gone similar routes using
multiple code bases and/or hardware but I see that as a NAS gateway in front of
SAN storage system.

This has been very successful in data centers both large and
small. But the idea of how we manage
storage is changing.Virtualization is
changing the idea of how and even where our data may be stored. The term cloud is something of a marketing
term but I like the term Storage Utility better. Utility companies such as electric, water,
sewer and even cable provide a product to its consumers and storage utility
vendors could do the same.

Most people are not concerned about process companies take
to make water drinkable or how electricity is generated as long as it is safe,
reliable and easy for them to consume. Storage
as a Utility is no different, it is only when the storage is offline or hacked
in by outsiders the consumers are concerned. There are laws that govern utilities and the FTC has put some privacy laws together to help consumers but I believe we can
take it a little further (a blog for another time).

As our data is changing from traditional spinning drives in
our data center to a storage utility, we will need some type of bridge that
will ease the pain of transition. The
main reason people do not adapt new technology is because the transition is
often too painful and the benefit of new technology is less than the need to
move. Whether it is a software package
that helps move data or a hardware device, it will have to give access to both file
based data and object based data. This
will allow for users to read the files as needed no matter what their connectivity
or location. It could also be used to
help drive efficiencies up buy allowing data to move from file based (high
cost) to object based (lower cost) environments.

Today there are some vendors who have early versions of this
type of unified solution. They are bridging
the gap between what we have today in private data centers and the future of
public utility storage. This is very
early in the transition but with this type of technology, we will be able to
adapt and provide a better way of storing data. Will it still be called a unified solution?
Only the marketing people can tell us that.